The OptionsANIMAL Blog

Volatility is back! Perhaps that is the understatement of 2018 as we have watched global equity markets enter into- and rebound out of – correction territory in February. Just two weeks ago the market theme was FOMO – fear of missing out – and traders/investors couldn’t snap up shares of […]

As the S&P 500 continues to defy gravity at the start of 2018, investors are facing a bit of a dilemma. The “greed” monster on one shoulder wants to stay long the market and continue to benefit from potentially higher equity prices despite the fact that this index has not […]

It’s hard not to recognize that the global equity markets have had a tremendously positive year in 2017. All sectors tracked by Sector SPDR’s have a positive return this year. There is one laggard for 2017 – the energy space. Let’s take a look to see if this could present […]

As I pen this blog, the S&P 500 had broken out to all-time highs and sustained that important technical event for several weeks. When investors begin to “peek under the hood” as to the reasons why the markets are at all time highs, question arise. The prices paid for shares […]

As an active trader/investor, I spend many hours each day conducting my due diligence on the markets. This involves reading many articles/opinion pieces about the factors influencing the direction of the broader markets as well as my individual equities. I love when I come across information that furthers my understanding […]

How many times have we heard the long-standing trading adage, “Don’t fight the Fed!” when discussing portfolio positioning in the stock market? When studying equity markets across time, one notices that the market heads to higher valuations when our Federal Reserve is in a process of reducing interest rates or […]

It should surprise no one when I confidently make the statement that someday the great bull market of the past six years will come to an end. The question we all want to know is – when? While I do not have a crystal ball providing that answer, I can […]

Have you ever experienced sitting in front of your trading computer, ready to pull the trigger on a well-researched trade, only to find that you simply can’t push the button? Let’s face it, we are emotional beings – and there is definitely an emotional component to trading and investing that […]

For several years now, we have heard pundits and prognosticators go on and on about the risks of strong – even perhaps runaway – inflation as a result of too much easy monetary policy for too long. Five years into the great experiment of zero interest rate policy, we still […]

As the S&P 500 continues to defy gravity and head to all-time highs, investors are facing a bit of a dilemma. The “greed” monster on one shoulder wants to stay long the market and continue to benefit from potentially higher equity prices despite the fact that this index has not […]